Skip to main content

Said Mahran Characterisation Blog Post

Passage: First stream-of-consciousness in chapter 4

           This passage shows the reader what Said Mahran now thinks of his old mentor figure, Rauf Ilwan. In the previous chapter, Rauf, though cordial in his demeanor to Mahran, rejects his wish to work as a journalist at his newspaper – due to Mahran’s lack of qualifications, but gives him some money, and states that “No job is menial, as long as it is honest”.

           In the passage, Said concludes that Rauf as evolved into someone else and has abandoned and/or betrayed his ideals. As characteristic of stream of consciousness, this passage operates non-chronologically, beginning with Mahran’s thoughts on the ‘new Rauf’, and going through his thought process that brings him to remember how he was betrayed by Ilish, and ranks them similarly in terms of how he feels they have betrayed him. The hatred expressed by Said in lines such as “I don’t know which of you is the most treacherous”, characterises the fixation on the past and vengeance that he continues to display throughout the story up until his death.This is also the revelation of Said’s hamartia – his fatal flaw, by Mahfouz, which would be his ‘raison d’etre’ becoming vengeance on those whom he feels betrayed him – leading him on an inescapable path that ends with his death.

           The thought process that Mahfouz writes for Said displays much of this hamartia and irrationality. Said genuinely cannot decide whether or not Ilish is the most treacherous of the pair – even though it could be argued that Ilish has had by far the most negative effect on Said’s life (getting him jailed, being romantically involved with his wife, and as a result of the betrayal, responsible for Sana not remembering him). The irratic thought process that Said displays is also emphasised with the use of italics to connote a stream of conscious passage: italics are less ‘solid’ than normal font, therefore the reader associates the stream of consciousness parts with less stability – which matches Said’s own instable and irratic thought process.


           The use of stream of consciousness by Mahfouz draws the reader’s attention to the aspects of Said that could be considered as ‘tragic hero traits’, such as Said’s hamartia, the seeds of his downfall, and his instability. He also reveals and thus characterises the traits of other characters in these passages.

Comments

  1. Cathy8 February 2018 at 13:47

    Victor's computer won't allow to post comments; his 'killer sentence' is

    "This is also the revelation of Said’s hamartia – his fatal flaw, by Mahfouz, which would be his ‘raison d’etre’ becoming vengeance on those whom he feels betrayed him – leading him on an inescapable path that ends with his death."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cathy8 February 2018 at 13:50

    "The thought process that Mahfouz writes for Said displays much of this hamartia and irrationality. "
    can be modified to: "Mahfouz allows the readers to view the stream of consciousness of Said as it acts to characterize Said to become more dimensional character as it illustrates harmatia such as his irrational ideas and decisions."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coriolanus and the Theme of Power

Shakespeare develops the theme of power in the play, mainly with the characters of Coriolanus, Volumnia, Aufidius, Menenius, and the Tribunes as representative of different forms of power. The titular character, Coriolanus, is a man from an older form of power, the absolute kind, where rulers did not have to answer to the commoners. He approaches politics the same way he approaches military matters: speaks his mind/heart (i.e. insulting the commoners, but it’s what he genuinely thinks of them), being true to himself, and insulting those he regards as enemies or against Rome (in battle this is the Volsces, but he believes that giving the plebeians a voice is a bad idea). In military, he is successful, because military power is absolute, obey or die type of deal, at least in that time; however, politics requires a surgical approach, and careful consideration of what to say, which the other characters mentioned can do better. Menenius acts as a foil to Coriolanus’ skills, because while h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Print Advertisement: Nivea Moisturizer

To start off, here's some basic information about the advert. Its target audience is young women, as the main focus of the advert is a young woman, and the product is cosmetic, a product type commonly advertised to this target audience. The cosmetic in question is "Nivea Smooth Milk: Body", a type of moisturizing cream. As the ad is written in English and comes from a German (Western) company, it can be concluded that this advert comes from a Western cultural background. Since Nivea was founded in 1911, it can be inferred that this ad was made in 2011, due to the quote "100 years skin care for life". The ad seems to imply that physical attractiveness is the most important factor in a happy relationship, due to the happy couple featured in the image, and the slogan "For visibily smooth and touchably soft skin" (misspellings came with the ad), which seems to imply to the viewer that moisturizer brought the couple closer together (the image has the...
1 comment
Read more

Summer Blog Posts

Here are both of my Summer blog posts: 1: In Norway, I have visited a cultural history museum in Oslo, and viewed some of the Viking artefacts that they had. They reminded me of Things Fall Apart, specifically the traditional and cultural aspect of the book and Igbo people. Like the Igbo, the Vikings had their own religious faith, featuring famous gods such as Odin and Thor, their own cultural traditions associated with that faith. Furthermore, similarly to the Igbo, the Vikings ended up converting to Christianity. It makes me think that surely there must have been people similar to Okonkwo in views, who would have objected to the Christianisation of Norway. With Norway, Christianisation mainly started under the rule of St. Olav (ruled from 995-1000), with him destroying pagan temples and killing pagans who resisted. The process of Christianisation was continued by following monarchs. I believe that the concept of a radically changing culture and religion, with divisions in societ...
Post a Comment
Read more